Category Archives: Measurements and instrumentation

The Golden Age Of Radar

By: Rob Thompson One of the most frequently viewed pages on weather apps is the radar imagery. We see them on apps, websites and TV forecasts, and have done for years. But rarely do we see much about what we … Continue reading

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Metrology, Earth Observation and Climate Data

By: Jonathan Mittaz  Metrology is the science of measurement which both defines the System International (SI, The International System of Units, 2019) as well as mathematical frameworks for measurement uncertainties (for example see the GUM: Guide to the expression of Uncertainty in Measurement, … Continue reading

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Putting a 120-Year-Old Barograph To The Test

By: Kieran Hunt Cast your mind back to 1900. The World’s Fair. Great Britain has just won 48 medals at the Summer Olympics including a clean sweep in the steeplechase. Queen Victoria’s reign continues through an unprecedented 63rd year. British … Continue reading

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It’s Hotter Than A Ginger Mill In Hades

By: Giles Harrison and Stephen Burt Or so they sometimes say in the south of the United States. But without a reference ginger mill or ready access to Hades, how do we know how hot it really is, and how … Continue reading

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Balloon measurements at Stromboli suggest radioactivity contributes charge in volcanic plumes

By: Martin Airey Volcanic lightning is an awe-inspiring and humbling display of nature’s power. It results from the breakdown of large electric fields that are generated within the volcanic plume. The processes that result in the accumulation of charge are … Continue reading

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Characteristics and enhanced quality control of drifting buoy observations of sea surface temperature from the International Comprehensive Ocean Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS)

By Simone Morak-Bozzo Over the last two decades drifting buoys have become the most prevalent in situ measurement method for sea surface temperature(SST). Drifting buoy data are particularly popular because of their high spatial and temporal coverage. Their freedom of … Continue reading

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Smoke, science, and sharks

By Ross Herbert In the August of 2017 the Cloud-Aerosol-Radiation Interactions and Forcing – Year 2017 (CLARIFY) measurement campaign took place on a tiny island in the middle of the southeast Atlantic Ocean where we were surrounded by whales, sharks, … Continue reading

Posted in Atlantic, Atmospheric chemistry, Atmospheric circulation, Atmospheric optics, Climate, Climate change, Climate modelling, Clouds, Data collection, earth observation, Energy budget, Environmental hazards, Greenhouse gases, Measurements and instrumentation, Microphysics, Numerical modelling, Solar radiation, Weather forecasting, Wind | Tagged | Leave a comment

Image conscious atmospheric science

By Giles Harrison A frequently-heard mantra in physics is “Like charges repel and unlike charges attract”. At face value this paraphrase of Coulomb’s Law seems useful for clouds too, as, quite apart from the obvious example of thunderclouds, water drops … Continue reading

Posted in Clouds, earth observation, Measurements and instrumentation, Microphysics, Numerical modelling, University of Reading | Tagged | Leave a comment

Soil Moisture retrieval from satellite SAR imagery

By Keith Morrison Soil moisture retrieval from satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery uses the knowledge that the signal reflected from a soil is related to its dielectric properties. For a given soil type, variations in dielectric are controlled solely … Continue reading

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